El Nido
After a few weeks in the Philippines, one becomes almost inured to beauty. Almost, but not quite, for El Nido, in the north of Palawan,...
Category: Places
Sweet Madeleines
It’s a wonderful thing, being a child. Who would have thought a palm tree could have provided pretty much an entire day’s amusement? Scaling it....
Maritime Woes
There are many things unique and wonderful about the Philippines. But the boatmen here are phenomenal in many of the wrong ways. Right now, sat...
Here Comes the Rain…
Maybe it’s El Nino. Maybe it’s climate change. Maybe we’ve brought the English summer with us. But it feels like the rains have come early...
Desert Island Caveboy
Even with my spawn noisily constructing a hand-axe from fossil coral and driftwood and a six-year-old channelling his inner T-Rex, there’s something about caves that...
Short Trousers…
Why is it that someone capable of the Wildean (or Timmy Timpson-esque) remark — “I’ve just been stung by an aquatic delicacy; I am hardly...
Light Effects
We were in Tabon, last week, in the south of Palawan, where the sunsets are amazing. But this, I have to say, I have never...
Calamansi Butter
So these little fellas are calamansi, Filipino style, tiny, spherical citrus fruit which experts believe originated as a cross between a mandarin and a lime....
Butterflies and Mimosa
I’ve always been a fan of provincial museums. Which probably comes from growing up in an era when the Thomas the Tank Engine road show...
Back to the Jungle?
Who needs a playground when you have a jungle swing? This is Z, swinging on a vine, on his way to Kbal Spean, Cambodia. One...